Microsoft buys Zenimax/Bethesda for $7.5B

[Max Peck]

I wonder if Microsoft has plans to get their xCloud client onto the Sony and Nintendo platforms. There could well be more profit to be had by selling Game Pass subscriptions to the Playstation/Switch userbases than there is in selling console hardware.

[malchior]

I wonder if Microsoft has plans to get their xCloud client onto the Sony and Nintendo platforms. There could well be more profit to be had by selling Game Pass subscriptions to the Playstation/Switch userbases than there is in selling console hardware.

I could see this as a viable long-term back up plan for them if the XBOX continues to decline in market share.

[Grifman]

Come to think of it, given that MS recently bought Obsidian and now Bethesda, maybe they're aiming to have some big RPGs on the console?

Duh, you think so?

[coopasonic]

People keep saying that exclusives are better on Playstation - perhaps this is a way to counteract that.

I'm 100% sure it is. When you look at the exclusives list, there really is no comparison, imo. Sony has Final Fantasy, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman, Last of Us, Uncharted, Bloodborne, Journey, Gran Turismo, etc. Microsoft has Gears of War and...um...

Forza > Gran Turismo
Halo
State of Decay
Dead Rising
Sea of Thieves

Of course if you include PC there is basically no such thing as an xbox exclusive. If you aren't into shooters or racing, there's not much left.

[Rumpy]

[This is definitely part of it. Japan just pumps out a lot of RPGs in general but the difference is that it more of an ecosystem there (dominated by Square). Sony owns only a few development studios but they have enough soft influence and market share to lock in exclusives. Whereas Microsoft seems to be struggling on exclusives. I think the wake up call was when the Switch became the number 2 platform at the end of last year. That could have prompted a strategic re-think that led to the spending spree. It's a realignment and frankly I think it means they think they needed to change the marketplace to get market share back.

I think I'd go even beyond that. I might or might not be the only one, but for me, beyond the Forza games, the Xbox has the perception of being a platform with its core being FPSes, going all the way back the first XBox with the Halo franchise and then the Gears of War, and then add-in all the cross-platform online shooters. In my eyes they could certainly use a little more diversifying in their first-party releases.

Another advantage the Playstation has is that Sony is more of a media company and able to draw from a number of IPs it has under its belt, an example being the reason why it has an exclusive Spiderman game.

With this merger though, my first thought of course was more RPGs, but the other half of me thinks, Oh joy, more shooters for MS? They'll at least own their own engine now and maybe they'll be tempted to make idTech their inhouse engine. On the RPG side of things, I could maybe see them have Obsidian join up with Bethesda to form an RPG division.

[Max Peck]

So apparently it's possible that the acquisition wasn't solely about game IP.

ZeniMax's 'Orion,' and how it will boost Microsoft's Xbox xCloud streaming tech

Microsoft shook the industry this week when it revealed its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, which gives it the rights to legendary IP like The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Fallout, and all of the talented studios known for making these epic, lasting experiences. One of the biggest criticisms of Xbox since practically forever has been the quality of its internal portfolio, which leaned incredibly heavily on Halo as its primary exclusive offering. With ZeniMax under its belt, that narrative is well and truly shattered — but there's another vastly important aspect to this acquisition that is being overlooked.

At its 2019 E3 showcase, Bethesda revealed Orion, its patented cloud streaming SDK, which it says its easy to integrate into existing games. Bethesda claims Orion allows games to run at "max settings" with minimal bandwidth usage, even if you live far away from a data center. To demonstrate these claims, Bethesda and id Software who are leading development of this SDK, demonstrated DOOM 2016 at 4K 60 frames per second, running on a smartphone.

[Paradroid]

Yeah right. What exactly do they mean by minimal?

[Rumpy]

I think Microsoft just kneed Stadia in the groin.

[coopasonic]

I think Microsoft just kneed Stadia in the groin.

Stadia killed themselves. They should have built it on AWS.

[Rumpy]

I think Microsoft just kneed Stadia in the groin.

Stadia killed themselves. They should have built it on AWS.

They were certainly struggling in terms of getting content on the service. But this probably is the nail in the coffin. I expect within a few months, they'll take their ball and go home.

[Max Peck]

Yeah right. What exactly do they mean by minimal?

From Bethesda's elevator pitch:

Orion is a game- and platform-agnostic technology that optimizes game engines for streaming. In contrast to game streaming services that focus on hardware solutions to stream games, Orion is a game engine-level software solution. Integrated within the game engine itself, Orion can achieve dramatic latency reductions of up to 20% per frame as well as up to a 40% reduction in required bandwidth.

Regardless of any actual improvement in bandwidth requirements, the fact that Orion is apparently capable of 4K 60fps while xCloud is limited to 720p 30fps (and allegedly could stand to see some improvement in terms of latency) seems to potentially make Orion a good pick-up for Microsoft, if it works as advertised. (Did I hedge enough bets there?)